Abstracts of Major Papers in This Issue

FromSaussuretoGoffman:ASemioticShift, by LU Deping, p. 10

Through reflection on the history of semiotic studies, particularly on those semiotic findings in the wake of Saussure, this paper intends to unfold a significant turn in semiotic thought, which has been realized in Goffman’sPresentationoftheSelfinEverydayLifeand his other works. This significant turn in semiotic thinking might be formulated as shifting the social nature of a sign from Durkheim’s invisible but coercive convention (almost same to Saussure), to a visible interactional situation in everyday life in terms of Goffman’s treatise, and furthermore, as transforming a sign’s separation from individual personhood in Saussurian semiotics, to person’s self presentation in a social setting of interaction as espoused with Goffman. Arguably, only with such a shift of approach and throughout a process of social interaction, could a sign afford to function as an essential component of one’s existence; or in other words, the sign itself will be taken as equal to one’s state of being. This shift of approach will also help sign get liberated from its instrumental position as the vehicle of communication.

TheQuestion-answerPatterninWrittenDiscourse, by MIAO Xingwei, p. 14

Textual patterns are formulaic forms or strategies for the organization of discourse which are established in the process of language use in a language community. In written discourse, the question-answer pattern is very often used as a way of organizing discourse, and as such it reveals the interactive nature of discourse. In the question-answer pattern, the question is usually raised merely for the sake of questioning, and the writer, by answering his or her own questions or raising more follow-up questions, indicates the direction of discourse as it unfolds. It is argued that the question-answer pattern performs the organizational functions of labeling information, introducing and expanding topics. It can be said that the question-answer pattern contributes to the organization of written discourse by rendering discourse a clear line of development.

RelationshipbetweenConstrualandListener’sMie:FromthePerspectiveofComparativeStudyofChineseandJapaneseLinguistics, by LIANG Shuang, p. 24

Working under the framework of the embodied philosophy and cognitive linguistics, Wang Yin(2006a) conducted a detailed analysis on the cognitive process based on the embodiment to emphasize the significance of interactive embodiment. However, the cognitive process “image-image schema” has not placed due emphasis on the influence of construal. In order to make some useful contribution, building upon the concept of “image”, this essay not only touches upon the off-line cognitive processing by cognitive agent, namely, “image”, but also covers the online processing by the cognitive agent, namely, “embodiment”, while replacing “image” with the concept of “mie”. The process of semantic communication is jointly completed by speaker and listener through “mie”. Meanwhile, language user’s construal has great influence on the “mie”. This essay also conducted comprehensively examined the features of listener’s “mie” in different construal from the perspective of comparative study of Chinese and Japanese linguistics, concluding that Chinese speaker’s construal tends to be more objective than the Japanese speaker’s one.

OnthePsycho-physiologicalDimensionsofInterpretingStudiesintheWest, by ZHU Bo & ZHI Yu, p. 29

Of the disciplines which have some bearing on the study of interpreting, the most prominent is the field of psychology. Its conceptual and methodological approaches have been applied in the study of (simultaneous) conference interpreting. Drawing from such approaches, Chinese scholars focused mainly on the cognitive workings and the fields of expertise, without due concern for psycho-physiological aspects. This paper tries to reveal, through some examples, the psycho-physiological dimensions of interpreting studies in the West, and propose several points for domestic researchers.

TheoreticalConstructionsofandReflectionsonEco-translatology:AnInterviewwithDouglasRobinson, by QIN Jianghua, p. 33

In the interview, the world renowned translation theorist Douglas Robinson introduced his new thinkings on eco-translatology, basing on Chinese philosopher Mencius’ idea of four shoots. He also shared his views on “Chinese culture going out”. He thinks that translating Chinese works into other languages is necessary, but the audicence’s reception should be taken into account. Chinese scholars’ efforts will eventually be paid off, but it takes some time. Translated works will not change into cultural soft power immediately. Moreover, he also shares his outlook on the translation studies in the next ten years. He thinks that the academics will still focus on the sociological turn, especially the empirical studies on the community, court and internet translators and their translation activities.

InterpretationofSnowWhitefromthePerspectiveofFeministNarratology, by Yu Jie, p. 39

Feminist Narratology mainly concerns how narrative model criticizes, defends and subverts male authority and how female authority is constructed. Barthelme’s first masterpieceSnowWhiteis considered as a postmodern literary piece for its unique innovation both in form and style. This article, from the perspective of feminist narratology, explores how the novel subverts the traditional images of male and female characters of the original and constructs the female authority through its unique narrative voice, meanwhile it interprets the novel narrative techniques the author employs to reveal the above themes.

RichText,Mottled“Epic”:AStudyonSaturdayfromthePerspectiveofSpatializingNarrative, by GUO Xianjin, p. 43

Ian McEwan becomes the supreme writers of his generation with the publication ofSaturdaywhich shows McEwan’s superb art of Spatializing Narrative. With the flexible use of narrative perspectives and setting paces, the novel describes the different characters and human affairs in the text world; it enriches the connotation of the text saturated with references toHerzogandDoverBeach, and reflects the mottled social reality of the contemporary Britain and even the world from politics, culture, science and technology.

“LivingwiththeDead”againstDeath:AnInterviewwithFredGardaphe, by WANG Zuyou, p. 49

Fred Gardaphe uses his training as a professor to teach students how humor has affected and can affect their lives, bringing a lot of fun to his class, but his sense of humor was hard-wrought. Family tragedies left a horrid, indelible imprint on his mind, and they became a major obstacle to his emotional development. “Writing has helped me to understand what happened and sometimes even why it happened. Every time I put words onto the page, I learn something new.” Gardaphe had to produce criticism worthy of attention by the kind-hearted scholars as well as the hard-hearted snobs by writingItalianSigns,AmericanStreets, to prove to the world that Italian American literature existed. Believing that the best response to reading is writing, he has written many books on Italian American culture. He is currently working on a book about the role of humor in Italian American communities, including what he sees as a notable “irony deficiency” among second-generation Italian Americans.